REVIEWS OF RECENT LITERATURE. 
ANTHROPOLOGY. 
Prehistoric Burial Places in Maine.!— Mr. Willoughby’s paper 
is noteworthy for its exposition of modern methods of archzological 
research, Atevery step in the progress of the work of exploration 
of the three burial places described, sketches, photographs, and 
measurements were taken with painstaking care so that the author 
is enabled to present the facts clearly and concisely. His work may 
well serve as a model for those untrained observers who, sincerely 
desirous of reading these perishable records of camp site and grave, 
but too frequently succeed only in destroying them. 
The cemeteries explored are shown to be very old; the imple- 
ments ? found in them differ somewhat from those used by the 
Algonquins who inhabited the region at the time of the discovery. 
We note that the slender spear points of slate resemble those used 
by the Indians of the Barren Ground of Canada at the present time 
for killing caribou by thrusts in the back as the animals are swim- 
ming across lakes and streams in summer. 
In conclusion the author suggests that these cemeteries may have 
been used by the Beothuks, the last remnant of whom perished in 
the central part of Newfoundland during the early part of this cen- 
tury. The discovery of a single cemetery of this interesting people 
would probably solve the problem raised by Mr. Willoughby’s inves- 
tigations, and also determine the relationships of the Beothuks to 
the tribes around them. A railway has invaded the Red Indian 
Lake region, and it is now easily accessible; it is to be hoped that a 
larger series of crania may be discovered, or at least that the few skulls 
now known may be studied by a trained somatologist. 
1 Willoughby, Charles C. Prehistoric Burial Places in Maine, Archeological 
and use al Papers of the Peabody Museum. Harvard University. Vol. i 
(1898), No. 6. 
2 In the quotation from Dr. Hough’s valuable paper on the Fire-Making 
Apparatus in the U. S. National Museum the statement is made that pyrites were 
probably used in kindling fire at Herschel Island (and other points east). This 
may be regarded as a certainty, as we have collected specimens of Eskimo fire-bags, 
containing pyrites at Herschel Island and know that it is so used. 
